Our Spring Garden 2012

I think I made a blog entry back when Chris built the third and fourth garden plots in February. 
Well, we've gotten everything planted and things are a-growin'.  I did a square foot gardening design, and with each picture, I'll show what everything is.

Plot One:

Broccoli	Broccoli	Broccoli	Broccoli
Green Pepper	Green Pepper	Green Pepper	Green Pepper
	Cauli-flower		Cauli-flower
Cauli-flower		Cauli-flower
Spinach	Spinach	Spinach	Spinach
Lettuce	Lettuce	Lettuce	Lettuce
Carrot 16	Carrot 16	Long Carrot 16	Radish 16
Carrot 16	Carrot 16	Long Carrot 16	Radish 16

The green peppers are having a hard time so I've replanted some seeds for those.  The lettuce and spinach are switched around and the spinach is also having a hard time.  We actually just harvested a few radishes yesterday, so those are all getting ready to be picked.


Plot Two:

Jubilee Tomato		Cherry Tomato
Broccoli	Broccoli	Broccoli	Broccoli
Green Pepper	Green Pepper	Green Pepper	Green Pepper
Bush Bean	Bush Bean	Bush Bean	Bush Bean
Spinach	Spinach	Spinach	Spinach
Lettuce	Lettuce	Lettuce	Lettuce
Carrot 16	Carrot 16	Long Carrot 16	Radish 16

We staggered some of the planting so we wouldn't have a ton of veggies and have them all stop producing at the same time.  This plot was all planted a bit later than the first one, and again, the spinach is being finicky.  I'm going to put some more seeds in and try again with that in the spots that it didn't grow.

Plot Three:

Jubilee Tomato		Cherry Tomato
Green Pepper	Green Pepper	Green Pepper	Green Pepper
Eggplant	Chinese Cabbage	Chinese Cabbage	Chinese Cabbage
Eggplant	Onion	Onion	Onion
Brussel Sprout	Onion	Onion	Onion
Brussel Sprout	Brussel Sprout	Beets	Onion
Garlic	Garlic	Onion	Onion

I planted a bunch of onion seed with the first and second planting and only a few of them sprouted.  I tried some more later and only a few of those sprouted as well.  So then I went to bulbs, and those are all growing great.

The brussel sprout plants are from the fall and they are still producing.  As you pick the brussel sprouts off the stem, you also take the leaves off so it will continue to produce, which makes them look a little funny.

Plot Four:

Water-melon		Zucchini
Snap Peas	Snap Peas	Snap Peas	Snap Peas
Canta-loupe	Yellow Squash	Yellow Squash	Yellow Squash
Canta-loupe	Cucum-ber	Cucum-ber	Cucum-ber
Pole Beans	Pole Beans	Pole Beans	Pole Beans
Onion	Onion	Onion	Onion
Onion	Onion	Onion	Onion

This plot might be my favorite. 

Everything is growing great, except the onions of course.  The bulbs I planted on the side are doing great, but only three of the seeds are growing, and I planted about 16 per square.  I think I'll either get some new bulbs or plant something else in those places.

That's everything.  I had wanted to start sweet potatoes but haven't gotten to that yet and haven't decided where to do them.

Oh, oh, oh...Chris also planted a tangerine tree in the backyard as well.  It's doing great so far, but won't produce any fruit until next year.  We have a grapefruit tree with TONS of grapefruits, but those aren't something we eat a lot of.  I need to take a picture of the tangerine tree so we can see how big it gets.

Have a great week!

More From the Garden

So it's been a while since I've talked about my garden.  It's looking pretty raggedy these days.  We had two nights that froze about a month or so ago and then two more earlier this week and my green beans and tomato plant didn't like it very much.  They both kept producing, but not as well.  It seemed like it was only the top layers of leaves on the tomato plant that shriveled and turned brown, so I cut those off and then the lower ones started doing it.  So my nice big tomato plant only yielded four tomatoes, and the tops cracked on all of them.  I'm still thrilled that I grew four tomatoes though.

Only three here, one was hiding on my plant.

We ended up with about 20 green beans total from my three grean bean bush plants.  We usually just ate them right when we picked them though.  Since only two or three would be ready at a time, the kids would all be disappointed that they couldn't have a whole one.  What a good problem to have...kids fighting over fresh veggies.  I think the biggest issue with my green bean bush plants is that I planted the broccoli closer to sun (not knowing how HUGE the broccoli plants would get) so the beans were blocked from the sun. 

Speaking of the broccoli, it continues to produce!  A few times, usually after a rain, it'll flower before I cut it off.  The older boys just pick off the flowers and eat the rest that isstill good.  We usually eat it raw, but when I steam it or use it in stir-fry, you can tell a big difference between it and the frozen florets I usually buy. 

The carrots are all still growing but I picked on just to see how big the root was, and it was barely there.  I'll keep them in there, but I'm not expecting big things.  We read that you have to prepare the soil for months before planting the seeds, and we didn't do that.  I got too impatient.  

We're done with radishes for now.  We had SO many and we're not that into them, but it was fun to usually have some to pick whenever we went out there.  I'll grow some more later this spring.

My snap pea plants have gotten good size and they just blossomed so they should be growing the snap peas soon if the freeze didn't affect them too much.  I need to make a bigger trellis for them to grow on when we plant spring veggies.

The brussel sprouts plants got very big and are just now starting to grow brussel sprout shoots.  I'll have to figure out something to do with them.  I'm not sure I've ever eaten a brussel sprout.

And lastly is the cabbage.  I planted four plants and have picked two of them.  One I gave to my dad when he visited for Christmas.  The other I used for dinner the other night. 

I made Runzas.  We had Runza restaurants in Nebraska and it was so yummy.  I made these a couple of years ago when we studied about Russia, but it was fun this time to use cabbage I had grown myself.  They were yummy and most of the kids liked them. 

I did it a bit different than the recipe I found.  I used a tube of croissant dough instead of bread dough so they wouldn't be so bread-y and so they would cook quicker. 

So there is the update on my garden.  I'll go take some pictures to add so it's a little more interesting.  Once the chance of freezing is over, we'll start our spring veggies!  I really like living down here where our growing season is practically year round.